Okay, good evening.
I'm Sharon Pinkstaff, Vice Chair of the Walnut Creek Pearls Commission.
Welcome to the April Pearls Commission meeting.
Before we do the roll call, I would like to introduce and welcome newly appointed Commissioner
Matthew Brockhouse for his first pro's commission meeting.
Matt, I don't know if you want to take the opportunity
to introduce yourself and say a few words
about why you're interested in commission
and your vision for the position.
Sure, thank you.
I moved to Wanna Creek in 2020
and immediately fell in love with it
and have been an active user of both the parks
and the open spaces since the minute we moved here.
I have a dog, I have two young children,
and it's inspired me to want to get involved
and make Walnut Creek an even better place than it is now.
Great, thank you.
All right, the next portion of the agenda is a roll call.
Commission Secretary Mike Vickers,
would you please do the roll call?
Yes.
Vice Chair Pinkstaff?
Here.
Commissioner Brockhouse?
Here.
And welcome, by the way.
Commissioner Garland?
Here.
Aller, here. Commissioner Sasser, here. And let the record show that Commissioner
Conkson is not here tonight. All right, moving right along. Election of the
pro's commission chair. So this time of the year that we usually do our chair
nomination and vice chair nomination, do we have a nomination for chair
commissioners? I nominate Sharon Pinkstaff, chair of the Commission. Is
Is there a second?
Secretary Vickers, would you do the roll call?
Yes.
Commissioner Sasser?
Yes.
Commissioner Garland?
Yes.
Commissioner Oehler?
Yes.
Commissioner Brockhouse?
Yes.
And soon to be chair, commissioner,
vice chair Pinkstaff?
Yes.
Yes, excellent.
All right, now.
Please, sorry, please let the record show
that vice chair Pinkstaff has been nominated
approve for Commission Chair. Okay next is election of Pro's Commission Vice
Chair. I'll nominate Gloria Sasser as a Vice Chair of the Pro's Commission. Is
there a second? Second. The nomination. Right. I'll call roll. Chair Pinkstaff. Yes.
Commissioner Oler. Yes. Commissioner Garland. Yes. Commissioner Brockhouse. Yes.
and Commissioner Sasser yes please let the record show that Commissioner Sasser
is now the vice chair for this upcoming year all right now we get into the
public communications portion of the agenda this portion of the meeting is
reserved for comment items not on the agenda under the Brown Act the
Commission cannot act on items raised during public communications but may
respond briefly to statements made or questions posed, question request
clarification or refer the item to staff. Written comments submitted have been
posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting
record but will not be separately read into the record. I actually have a couple
of public comment cards so I'm gonna call the commenter. I don't know do we
have any on the websites they've submitted public comment on the website
there is not all right so I'll go so I have these are for individuals that are
gonna be speaking at public comment for an item that is not on the agenda so if
she calls your name and you're here for the agenda please wait to the item is
presented thank you all right first show dresser just a reminder there are two
minutes for your comment and please state your name and the city of
residence for the record. Jill Dresser, Walnut Creek. Good evening Secretary
Vickers and commissioners. I'm here to invite you to the bringing back the
natives garden tour on May 3rd from 10 to 5 p.m. at Sugarloaf Open Space Native
Plant Garden. I don't know if you all know that there is a native plant garden
at the Sugarloaf open space in the Walnut Creek open space.
The Bringing Back the Native's Garden Tour is typically a tour for residential homes.
This is the first year that the tour has accepted a non-residential home to be on the tour,
and Sugarloaf is going to be on there.
The garden at Sugarloaf was established many years ago by a former ranger, and during the
pandemic I walked by the garden and saw that it was in need of some TLC. So I
got together two friends and we started working in the garden. We've been there
since October of 2020 and it's a nice little demonstration garden. We are there
today. In fact, we go there every Monday to water and prune and pull weeds and
admire how beautiful nature has created these native plants. So I'd like you to
invite you to come, I have a handout for each of you and for Secretary Vickers. I
also want to thank the City of Walnut Creek for being a sponsor for this tour,
so they have made a financial donation to the tour. The nutshell has done a nice
little piece about the tour in the recent nutshell, and Sustainability
Group also did a shout-out in their most recent eco-newsletter. So the word is
getting out there about this little native plant garden. If you can't come on
May 3rd, please stop by anytime that Sugarloaf is open. We have a closed gate.
We just ask that you close the gate, otherwise the deer get in and eat our
plants. And we hope to see you on May 3rd. Thank you very much. Next commenter,
Richard, oops. Okay, next commenter, Richard McChesney. Good evening, Council
members. So I'm not sure if I'm out of order or if there was, because I didn't, I
I picked up the agenda, but I don't see specific items
that are for tonight.
So I might be out of order on my comments.
So anyway, so my name's Richard McShesney
and I live in Concord.
I'm 72 years old and I'm a mountain bike rider
for probably the last 15 years.
I ride for exercise, I ride for challenge,
I ride for fun.
I also ride for strength training and balance
and for cognitive health.
I prefer riding in the nature, right?
I don't really wanna compete with vehicles,
with road dust, inhaling, you know,
the gases from the cars and vehicles and everything else.
So I ride in nature.
And Lime Ridge Open Space is a perfect place
for me to do that.
I'm also a new member to a club,
it's the Contra Costa Composite MTB Club.
Now that club is for,
I think it's from sixth grade to 12th graders.
And so we coach and ride the trails as much as we can
to help these kids have a sport and an activity.
it's just a great organization that stresses health,
courtesy, and safety.
So it's training our next generation
of mountain bike riders to embrace the public
and embrace the pedestrians and everything else
in a polite, courteous way.
And, oop, is that my two minutes already?
Yes.
That's a trait, can I have like 30 seconds more?
that's a trait that really I find in most all mountain bikers
that I see everywhere, from Briones and Lime Ridge,
and they're courteous to people.
And I know there's a lot of pushback from people
that are pedestrians that are using the trails,
but I think we can do it together.
And these kids and us adults need a place close to home
that we can do those activities safely
and with respect to the rest of the trails
the other people. So please I ask you to consider expanding the MTB use of Lime
Ridge area. Thank you. Thank you. Next commenter Matthew Tarlock. Good evening
and thank you for hearing me. My name is Matthew Tarlock. I'm on the board of the
Mount Diablo Bird Alliance, which until a couple of years ago was the Audubon
Society. And I mean just here to talk about the natural area and the natural
lake at Heather Farm, someplace that, you know, I have walked around with Mike a few
times. And we are really glad to see that a lot of the trees that you have planted,
the city has planted over the past year or so have taken hold, and that is looking good.
We appreciate the wildflowers that have been planted in the area where the lake was expanded
and excavated there. As spring has warmed up, we are starting to get concerned about
the health of the natural lake there. For Commissioner Brockhouse, who is new, a lot
of people don't realize that the natural lake at Heather Farm really is a natural lake.
It has been there for hundreds of years, and it is a very important resource for local
wildlife and for people who enjoy local wildlife. We are a little concerned that it is starting
to get already green and slimy. In the past years, there was a skimmer that was put out
there to kind of control the algae. I am calling it algae that is out there. But the boat ramp
we notice as part of the lake modifications, the boat ramp is gone. We are wondering how
you are going to get a skimmer in there or if there is going to be a skimmer. And we
are concerned about that.
And also the toolies are getting out of control. I have sent an email as public comment which
you should be able to see that shows some pictures of some of the viewing areas are
pretty much completely screened off now by Tully growth. That stuff really needs to be
dredged out. And I know that the city has a really nice plan for restoring the lake
and the feeder streams already on file. Paid some money to put that together. And I hope
that now that the pool project is well underway, we can start looking toward working in the
natural area and maintaining a really great resource we have here in the city.
So I'd love to hear about the skimmer and any possibility of dredging or removing, cutting
back the tulees in the near future.
But yeah, thank you very much.
Do we have any response to the comments?
Yeah, and I can elaborate a little bit more during the presentation that I'm going to
be giving an overview of all of our parks.
But we will be harvesting the algae in the lake in the next couple weeks.
We're actually just using a smaller skimmer, so to speak, that's going to come in from
the area that's referred to as the beach area that's going to come in there. And
then I'll elaborate more on the overgrowth I'll call it of Thule's
during the presentation. So thank you for your comments. All right next commenter
Glenn McBee. Good evening. I'm Glenn McBee. I am member of the Walnut Creek
Racquet Club and I'm the city liaison for a number of years. Occasionally I make
it here to see you all because everything has been going along so well
for us. There is one thing of particular concern that I brought to your attention,
I think the last meeting, and I'll continue to do it just so we keep top of mind. Of course,
the courts at Heather Farm were built, I believe, in 1970, and the equipment on courts one through
seven are original lights, technology that has lived its life. The equipment fails much more
frequently now than it used to. The replacement parts, bulbs, ballasts are virtually not available
and it can take an immense amount of time for, I think we had like four lights in a row out
for like six weeks and it wasn't because of neglect, it was because of lack of supply
and an equal part of what the what's called the lift to get it in.
My point is we need to upgrade our facility lighting to LEDs and it's not a cheap thing.
I've spoken with Lifetime and we're going to the club is going to continue to support
and talk about ways in which we can assist in getting new lighting but I just want to keep it
kind of on the top of the mind. We are the largest public tennis club in Northern California,
second largest in the state. We're a destination tennis facility. Lifetime has done a tremendous
job bringing attention and growth, coaching and clinics. So if you ever go by there on a week day,
Weekend or weeknight. You'll see that all the courts are tremendously busy. It's it's a thriving tennis community
That's our biggest need another one. We'll hear more about but that was the one I wanted to focus on tonight is just
Over time we're gonna be you'll be hearing us talk more about LED lighting at the tennis courts at the Walnut Creek Tennis Center
Thank you
Do you want to provide an update? I?
Can just provide a couple comments regarding the lights just for for all the commissioners here and and for
Mr. B who I believe under who knows this the lifetime activity partner of the city
Is responsible for the maintenance of the lights and other maintenance responsibilities at the facility
But as I mentioned they're partners of ours. We want to continue to work with them closely. There is a retrofit
LED kit that we're currently looking into right now for the ball fields
And according to the representative for this company, he believes that retrofit may fit
into the existing fixture at the tennis club, and so we are actively working on trying to
find affordable solutions to get those lights updated to LED.
So just to – there'll be more to come on that, but I can talk to you, Glenn, when
I see you out at the park with – get you some more details.
Yeah.
Thanks for the update.
How many of you guys have come in are Barbara, Genos, Genos?
Hello, my name is Barbara Guinness.
I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1996.
We all know we've had an extremely dry January, a record
dry and hot March, and the second lowest snowpack figure
on record right now.
So we can all surmise that it may be an extreme fire season.
I sent an email, which I think I sent to all of you, that lists some of the wildfires that
occurred in Lime Ridge Open Space.
In the last 20 years, there were 20-some years, there was at least 10 wildfires, so it's about
one every other year.
Many of the residents that have homes and properties that abut the Open Space there,
Line Ridge, they know that the open space is considered high or very high fire risk.
Insurance companies have canceled many people.
They're homeless insurance.
If they're not canceled, they're really raising the rates up.
I think some of you may experience that too if you live by any open space.
City staff presented a couple times about converting two social trails to multi-use
trails in Lyman Shell Ridge. And city staff touted adding extra signage and advertising
and social media posts to advertise the new trail they planned to open. The U.S. Department
of Forestry says in many articles, human activities cause 85 to 95% of the wildfires. So inviting
more people to the open space, increased human activities can raise the already high and
very high fire risk. So I think it's somewhat irresponsible for city staff to not consider
the wildfire risk for people that adjoin the open spaces. Considering the long list of
wildfires in Lime Ridge and I just found some of them inadvertently on the
internet. We can say that the tax paying
citizens of the community probably don't need another multi-use trail. Thank you.
Thank you. Do commissioners and secretary have any questions on the public comments?
all right thanks commanders the next item is consent calendar approval of
minutes from our February 2026 meeting a move to approve second yeah I'll move
forward with the roll call Commissioner Garland yes Commissioner
Oer? Yes. Vice chair Sasser? Yes. Commissioner Brockhouse? Yes. And chair Pinkstaff? Yes.
Motion passes. Does any of the public have comments on the consent calendar? Oh you
don't. Okay so next item is consideration we have two presentations from our
non-profit community partners. First is Mr. Fred Rentschler with the Walnut Creek
Senior Club. He has a presentation for us the Senior Club. Welcome. Well thank
you for this opportunity to discuss seniors in the community. My name is Fred
Rentschler. I am the president of the Walnut Creek Senior Club and it is a
volunteer position and it is one of those jobs that you cannot leave until
you find your own replacement. And I want to thank Jessica Bailey who was in Mike's
office who did the brilliant job on the PowerPoint presentation from my kind of
incoherent bullet points. My mission here tonight is twofold, actually threefold. I
do want to get through a PowerPoint production without screwing it up. But I
do want to give an overview of the club in the context of political reality now
that the senior population will be competing with other groups and
interests that have equally valid and legitimate claims on city resources and
funding. I want to make sure that we have a seat at the table. So far so good.
Secondly, I want to talk about a paradigm shift in what I'm seeing in the
Walnut Creek senior committee, senior community. I also have waited years to
use the word paradigm in a sentence. I want to give an overview of the club in
And we are growing as the senior community is growing in numbers and sophistication.
We are healthier, wealthier, more comfortable using tech devices and social media than previous
generations and I by the way I would like to point out that with the phone you have
all the world's information in your palm but on the other hand you have all the world's
misinformation also. But that is the world we're living in today. We will
expect more from local government and senior organizations and, as you probably
know, a larger percentage of seniors vote than the population at large. Our
challenge is to rethink and change our approach to the way seniors are viewed
and how we can improve their quality of life. The Walnut Creek Senior Club is in
a unique position to help. The Walnut Creek Senior Club is in this unique
position because unlike every other senior club in the area we are not part
of city government. We receive no city funding. We are an independent registered
nonprofit run entirely by volunteers. We have no salaried staff or employees. Our
Our only source of income are yearly dues, fees, donations and grants.
That said, we could not exist without the help and expertise of the Park & Rec and
other city departments.
And I would like to thank Karen at Park & Rec, Mike at Maintenance, and Jim and Hope who
are over at Heather Farms.
they have been very helpful in our running of the club.
I will give a few more examples of the cooperation
between the city and the club later in this talk.
And to answer the obvious question,
nobody knows why this exists, why
we are an independent nonprofit.
OK, now we're going to talk about Senior Club.
We have four off-site groups that serve about 380 members.
Largest and most successful is the Creekers Senior Softball League.
The Creekers are a play on the word Walnut Creek and creaking bones.
The volunteer administrative committee that runs the league has made it the most successful
senior league in the area, fielding 20 teams in four divisions.
And also the Creekers and the tennis group are revenue neutral to us.
All the players pay an additional yearly fee for the field fees and the court cost.
The yearly fee for the Kreekers is about the same as two rounds of golf.
Our tennis group consists of 35 men and women that play three times a week at Larky Park
all year long, weather permitting.
Our walking group, the Walking Buddies, and our bicycle group have weekly tours of the
area and average about 35 participants per week.
These are the two biggest on-site groups that we have.
We have Bingo.
They meet weekly and they're the only group in the club that the IRS allows members to
leave with more money than they came.
The IRS differentiates between gaming and gambling.
Gaming is when no skill is needed to win the money.
Bingo raffles Wheel of Fortune.
is when skilled players will usually lead with more money than unskilled players.
We're only allowed to do gaming.
The only non-profits that can do gambling are, ironically, churches.
Second is the Mahjong Group, who play the American version of the popular game.
We have about 45 members playing each week.
The city runs a class on how to play the game, and they refer everyone over 50 years of age
to our group when they complete the class.
Let's move along pretty well, huh?
These are our onsite groups that meet at the community center
just right across the street.
Hooked on books, which about 25 members meet monthly
to discuss different books every month.
They use the library, another way the city is helping us,
and the room is free.
The perennial garden group also meets monthly,
where about 25 participants share gardening advice
and listen to selected garden experts.
The Let's Sing group is an acapella group
with about 20 members,
including several who have had professional experience.
It meets about, it meets twice a week.
The group also performs at various assisted living
and nursing facilities.
Another musical group, a new group,
is the folk music jam group with about 16 singers
and acoustical instruments.
We have three smaller groups that meet twice a month
to play bridge, chess, and pinako.
There are about 10 persons a piece that join those groups.
The trivia group is still on Zoom.
They started on Zoom when COVID hit
and they get about 25 people.
They meet monthly.
Our Q-Gong group of around 10 people
practice a Chinese balance exercise.
And there's also a zoom in which the exercise is also practiced.
And a special note, we have a native garden group,
like this other woman that was here, of around 12 members who are working in
partnership with the city and other non-profits to return the
actual Walnut Creek to its pristine natural state by
removing invasive non-native vegetation and replanting native varieties.
The Senior Club is helping by planting butterfly gardens around the creek.
It's another example of the help we get from the city. Mike Vickers has been
very good with resources and advice. The Walnut Creek Senior Club has about a
thousand members down now down from from a high of about 2815
years ago. Reasons for the decline in my judgment
are of course the COVID epidemic. We still haven't recovered from
that. Lack of parking at Civic Drive, we all know that that's a problem. And the demise
of our travel program, we had a woman, Jody Johnson, who retired at 93 about five years
ago who ran the program. Six of us took it over and we ran it into the ground within
six months. I know the city has a travel program which is in hiatus right now, and most of
our members now use the travel program at Pleasant Hill. They have a very good program.
And the other reason is, and if I can use my wife as the poster child for this, is seniors
have a phone in their hands, and they've got a hundred things they can do every day, and
They don't need the senior club for the socialization
that the previous generations did.
I can give an example of myself, too.
I'm an avid gardener, have been for 50 years.
When I have a problem or a question, I go to YouTube.
There's 1,000 YouTubes that will answer my question.
And so this is also something else
of why I think that there aren't as many seniors using
the senior club.
OK.
Let's go to 8 here.
For the future, how do we serve this valuable, diverse,
and increasing segment of our population?
I see two problem areas, one existential, the other mundane.
As I have mentioned, we need to change our perception
and attitude about our senior population
and what they can and cannot do.
And we need to focus on the increasing number of studies
that show that the two most important elements
of a meaningful quality of life for seniors
is socialization and exercise.
And some recent studies have shown
that socialization is even more important than exercise.
The other problem is more frustrating and reality-based,
parking at Civic Drive, the playground on ice days,
the ice rink that takes up about 30% of the parking
three months out of the year, and, of course, the root cause.
There are just too many people in California.
Fortunately for seniors, this problem has a solution.
The Walnut Creek Senior Center wants to move,
work with the city and move our operation to Heather Farms
when the new community center is open sometime in 2027.
And if we could get some space for a small office,
that would be great.
That's it.
I'll take any questions if any of you have them.
I have a question.
Is there a transportation element
to any of the senior programs?
like if you don't drive or if you're...
The city has an agreement with Lyft for transportation.
So does it work in coordination with senior activities?
Yes, I think you have to be 50 years old age to use it,
but the city does run that.
Okay.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Now I'm anxious to hear about the model terrains.
Does the public have any comments on the pronunciation?
If not, I have one more question when it's probably
more for Mike, but do we know the demographics of Walnut Creek now? Like,
are we trending younger, older, most, many, many places are, of course, aging, and do
we keep track of things like that as the city? We do, and I should know this
information. It's been shared with me, but I'm afraid I'm going to misspeak, and so
have to follow up with you. I know generally the demographics in Walnut Creek are above average in
other communities within the Bay Area in terms of age or an older age here in Walnut Creek. I think
the average age is like 46 or something along those lines which is a little above average if
I remember correctly. And a lot of the new development downtown is it family-oriented or
younger oriented. I'd be guessing. I'm not positive. Yeah. I'm just curious because
Yeah, it makes a difference as we sort of plan ahead for what kinds of facilities and activities and things like that are important
It's sort of what what is that trend in the demographics?
Yeah, and I'm gonna share a little bit about this in my presentation
But one of the exciting things that is coming up for for this body
Not only a look at phase three and what the reimagining Clark Swim Center
Hopefully we'll be focusing on that the second half of this year
but there's also a general plan update that's
being led by the Planning Commission, which will also
be here in front of all of you sharing this information
and trying to drive a future look at what Walnut Creek is
going to look like between now and 2050.
And a lot of that information will
be shared during those sessions.
$20 a year.
All right.
Any other questions?
No more questions.
Now we welcome Mr. Woody Hodge with the Model Railroad
Society to provide his presentation.
Good evening.
My name is Woody Hodge and I'm here
to represent the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society.
Each year we welcome over 44,000 visitors
and provide hands-on and educational experiences
for families and the community.
Tonight I'd like to share with you some of what we do
and how we bring value to the city of Walnut Creek.
The Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society is dedicated
to promoting and sharing the hobby of model railroading.
It is a hobby that combines creativity,
craftsmanship, and technical skills.
And it's something that we truly enjoy sharing with others.
We provide a place for model railroads
to connect with each other, to learn from each other,
and to build lasting friendships.
We often described the club as one of the,
one of the Creek's most well-keeping secrets.
Where else can you entertain a family of four
for under $20?
Okay, let's start off with a little bit of history.
The club formed in 1948,
when six model railroaders got together in a round robin format, which meant they rotated
through each other's houses, got together, worked on models, worked on layouts, ran trains.
In March of 1950, they came together and formed the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society as
an unincorporated organization.
In June of 1952 they then became incorporated in the state of California as a non-profit
organization.
The first building was a storage shed that was acquired from the Hercules Powder Company
in Hercules and was moved to near the Southern Pacific Walnut Creek Depot.
They learned very quickly that there were problems with weatherproofing.
They had to apply stucco to the outside of the building, and then they found out the
roof leaked.
They had to give it a new roof, and then they put a wallboard on the inside to manage to
regulate the heat and the cold.
While the shed was being worked on, they constructed a 20 by 40 foot layout in that building.
They held their first public show in June of 1954.
The show included a golden spike ceremony, where the president, they had actual, this
thing's going on its own, oops, went the wrong way.
Come on, okay, stay, I'll see if that works.
Okay, the golden spike ceremony, the president of the club held gold-plated spikes in place
while it was driven home by the Southern Pacific District
Engineer as their ceremony.
There was a new entrance for the shed
that was fashioned from the last 20 feet of an observation car.
Here's a picture of that car.
Whoops.
Come on, picture.
There we go.
Picture.
Oh, that was it.
Yeah, OK.
We had our first ending.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needed to do a flood control project in Walnut Creek.
That was part of the South Broadway Extension Project, and the club had to give you out
of the shed by mid-March 1971.
Their last show was in January of 1971.
New beginnings.
They had first attempted to move the Southern Pacific depot to Heather Farms, which seemed
like a reasonable task until we got the estimate from PG&E, to disconnect and reconnect all
of the power lines from the original location down South by the way to Heather Farms.
I just made it cost prohibitive.
Then we started negotiations for an unused parcel in Larky Park.
Council approved a city lease agreement in January of 1972.
The city approved a construction of a 50 by 80 building on Buena Vista, which is where
it is today, in Larky Park.
The space was used as a folding place in the pre-mail in ballot days, and we committed
to holding public shows, which we continue to do today.
The structure itself was a butler steel building kit.
It was installed at the current location.
Construction began in March of 1972.
Most of the work was completed by the members on weekends and evenings.
There is a great story that comes out of this exercise.
Members were preparing to raise the big beams from the steel kit with blocks and tackles.
One of the neighbors wandered over and said, what are you doing?
And they told him, they said, hang on, I'll be back in a few minutes.
So about 30 minutes later, here he comes with his crane, lifted those beams in place without
a hitch.
The first open house was held over the last two weekends in February of 1974.
Today the building is still maintained entirely by the club members at no cost to the city.
The Walnut Creek model railroad society is a 100% NMRA member club.
Which means that every member of the club is also a member of NMRA, which is the National
the Montero Rollo Association, which
is broken down into national divisions, which is actually
worldwide, not national regions, which
is North America and divisions.
And we are in the coast division of the Pacific Coast
region of NMRA.
And some of our members are actually
members of the Redwood Empire Division, which
just across the river. Our members have been or are or have been officers or
volunteers in those three, while the Creek has hosted or participated in both
Pacific Coast Region and National Conventions. Sources of income. We have
five major sources of income. The first is our public open houses by charging
admission. Our admission charges are very very reasonable. We're open for 118
hours every year. We have a Friday night, last Friday night of the month show we
have four weekend shows typically in odd months and then in November we have our
two three-day weekend holiday show. We also operate a gift shop that is open
during the public shows.
We collect annual dues for Walnut Creek members.
We see payments for special events and private parties,
most of which are like, well, I'll go into that in a minute.
We do not charge for school events,
although most of them make a donation anyway.
People also donate model railroad items
that they'll no longer want.
Dad's old train, but he died.
You don't know what to do with him.
We had 4,460 visitors in 2025.
This is the breakdown of adults under six seniors and children
six to 12.
We also, one of the ways that we advertise,
and this number is down from 2024,
one of the ways we advertise is through the Arch and Rec
banner service and we lost Heather Farms in 2024 when it died through the wind storm.
So we haven't had that available and it won't get fixed until they're done with Heather Farms.
Growing demand for events and programs. Last year we had two school visits and three birthday
parties, a total of five events. So far this year we've already had four birthday parties,
one school visit, and two more events are scheduled, which already exceeds 2025.
At each outreach event, we provide hands-on interactive experiences where participants
operate trains, engage participants through conversation, demonstrations, and Q&A.
We share information about our layout, events, and programs.
In 2025, we participated in several outreach events across the community.
The Contra Costa Library exploration station that we had housed on STEM exploration stations.
We had the SERS, the Sons in Retirement, Lunsch & Boundary Oaks.
We gave a presentation.
We brought the layout.
And then we had the Walnut Creek Trunk and Treat in the Civic Park interactive activities
with family engagement.
We had a craft activity where the kids could make a lanyard with a railroad themed trinket
that they could take home with them.
We also had a cardboard engine that they could sit in and get their picture taken.
Whoop, that went one too far.
OK, looking forward to 2026, we're
going to continue with the exploration stations.
We're adding a Pleasant Hill, Tinkers and Thinkers Innovation
Fair.
This one's going to be very fun.
It starts in April.
The one in the center of the far right, it looks kind of blank.
That's what they start with.
It's a piece of track and oval shaped thing.
The two on the left are what they are going to make,
something along those lines.
So each kid will be able to make their own
and then at the end of the session,
we'll put them all together.
They hook together and make a loud runner train.
And we will also go back to the Walnut Creek truck and treat.
Come on, turn page.
Okay, building maintenance.
Over the last couple of years,
we've had three major maintenance projects.
We had to repair the building siting,
which in many cases replacing T-111 panels,
and completely repainting the entire building, which
was done in two stages.
We've painted the south and west side in one year.
And then the following year we did the east and north side.
We also had to replace the whole air conditioning system, which
meant two air conditioning units and two heater blower units.
And the roof developed some potholes,
I think from the squirrels, which had to be fixed, repaired.
And then the entire roof was recoded and re-sealed.
All of this work was funded by the club and not at the city's expense.
American Disabilities Act upgrades.
The building itself is in grandfathered compliance.
It hasn't been structurally modified since its original final.
But we have a desire to become ADA certified.
We started by hiring a certified access specialist to perform a accessibility
survey, which was done in January of 2025.
The accessibility survey also noted that the city maintained hardscape around the
club. Business building has accessibility issues that need to be addressed.
When the city several years ago worked in Larky Park, they did the parking
spaces in the parking lot, and they work on the sidewalk on the street, leaving a big
gap between those two. That's where the issues lie. It's uneven and the grades are wrong,
so we're going to have to plan on that. The Walnut Creek Model Railroads Society has agreed
to convert one bathroom to a unisex handicap accessible bathroom. The other one will be
converted to unisex, and the work also includes some minor accessibility issues.
The timing of this major work, i.e. the bathrooms, will have to be coordinated with the city's
plans for doing the hardscape around the building or we won't be able to put up the appropriate
handicap access placards, and that is the end.
It did.
It was ahead of me.
It knew.
Thank you.
Any questions?
Can I ask it?
Commissioners, do we have any questions?
Does anybody have any questions, clarification?
No?
All right.
Thank you.
I will now open the items up to the general public.
If anybody has any comments, please
come forward to the podium.
Please introduce yourself.
Hey there.
I'm too tall for this.
Hey there, everybody.
name is Jarrett. I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1989 when I was
born. I've been riding mountain bikes in Lime Ridge and Shell Ridge since then and
I'm here to continue advocating for more trails for mountain bikes in Lime Ridge.
The strategy of exclusion is no longer valid. Mountain Bikes are here. They're
here to stay. If we're not building access and allowing more mountain bike
users to get out into those open spaces, they will continue to build illegal
trails and build rogue trails and be unsatisfied with their usage. A good
example is myself. In the 90s and 2000s I built plenty of the illegal trails out
in Shell Ridge and Lime Ridge. I built plenty of the illegal trails out in
Briones and they all get shut down. It's resource time and money spent to shut
down our trails. But if we actually build, you know, trails for mountain bikers
that's gonna leave a lot of our problems. Most of you guys are probably aware of
the Biones pilot project in Biones Regional Park.
We put out a survey to all of the user groups in Biones,
and one of the questions we asked those users in 2025,
did you see an increase in mountain bikers in
the park or a decrease in mountain bikers in the park?
Most of them said they thought they saw
a decrease in mountain bikers in the park,
and they're more satisfied with
their user experience because it
reduced user conflicts on that
because mountain bikers aren't on those multi-use trails.
that are on their dedicated mountain bike trails
that are for them and for them only.
And one of the other big benefits that come out of that,
those rogue trails that were built
very unsustainably back in the day,
we actually got all of the original trail builders,
got them involved with East Bay Regional Park District,
got them involved with a biologist,
now they actually have carte blanche
to continue maintaining those trails
in a very sustainable way.
And when we go out and do our dig days,
they actually send a biologist to come out with us
and identify areas that we don't want to disturb
in areas that we can disturb.
So Lime Ridge, perfect example of a place
that could be done with a pilot project.
I've been building trails in that park for years.
I've seen trails built and I've seen them destroyed.
And what's really cool when they get destroyed,
two to three years later, you can go back to that.
Nature has reclaimed it.
And that's the point of that is to say
that that park is a very durable park.
It can handle the usage of mountain bikers on there.
If we allow mountain bikers
and if the city wants to get involved
actually build sustainable trails for mountain bikers.
So I'm going to be here at the next meeting.
I'm going to keep advocating for it.
But I would love to see a pilot project launched in Lime Ridge,
not just for myself, but also for those Contra Costa
composite kids and all of our youth
that are using those trails.
They want to go somewhere to ride their bike.
And right now, we don't have trails
that meet their skill levels or meet their desires for riding.
So if we don't build a pilot project,
if we don't build trails for mountain bikers,
We're just going to continue building illegal trails,
and you guys are going to be wasting money
to shut them down and trying to fight against the problem.
A really good example, remember skateboarders
in the 90s and 2000s were sick and tired of you guys
riding around on the cities and grinding on rails
and riding on the sidewalk and stuff like that?
And we invested millions of dollars in a skate park, right?
And that problem went away because we gave skateboarders
a place to go enjoy themselves.
Now we need to give mountain bikers
a place to go enjoy themselves.
Not just so mountain bikers enjoy their outdoor experience,
but so that other users can enjoy their experience better
because they don't have to worry about a mountain biker coming
down a trail and almost running into them.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Commissioners, do you have any questions?
I had a little question.
So I'm not agreeing or disagreeing
with what should happen at Lime Ridge.
But my question is more, if you are admitting
that mountain bikers are building trails on their own that
illegal, what guarantee is there that that would stop if some trails were built?
Please come to the podium. So the pilot project, we got four of the formerly
illegal trails in the northern region of Briana is we got those formalized signed
downhill mountain bike only trails. Not multi-use, mountain bike ollings, but in
that zone where we've now legalized trails where we used to constantly build
to illegal trails, myself included, we haven't seen the creation of any new or rogue or illegal
trails in that area anymore. Does that answer your question? Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Any other
questions commissioners? No? Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up agenda is park and open space
summary. I invite Mike Vickers with city of wanna Creek for the presentation. Oh, sorry. Yes.
please state your name and your residence. Hi my name is Miguel Perez. I live in Concord
and I've been riding bikes most of my life okay. I started when I was a little kid and you know it
was something fun to do but it quickly transitioned into a full-time hobby and I now raise cross
country with the Contra Costa Composite team and one of our staple places for us to ride and train
is Lime Ridge but we don't really have a lot of trail access but it's really a place you really
have to rely on. It's one of the best local spots you know I live in Concord
so I can't really go to as many other places like I maybe can't go to Brioni
some days but I can go to Lime Ridge it's easily accessible for me it's right
off the canal trail take the canal trail there to and from. Also want to say my
team and I we have put in countless of hours volunteering over at Brioni's in
Mount Diablo to give back to the trails that we ride and I was hoping we could
really get something like that over in Lime Ridge. It's just riding these trails. It's
really changed my life. It's also one of the fastest growing sports among the youth. It's
ranked around the sixth fastest growing sport, not only mountain biking, but it's just cycling
in general. It's really good for us. It's active. I see a lot of people nowadays, they
complain, hey, kids are just on their phones the whole day. They need to go out and go
do something. But then we actually try to go out and ride trails. Okay, we can ride
these trails but after a while we get bored you know maybe maybe we try to
build some new trails but those trails get dozed down and it's like it kind of
takes some fun out of it so we could maybe see some new trails out in Lion
Ridge. We'd be happy to contribute you know my team would probably love to go
out and help dig with the city and yeah just having a lot more trails in Lion
Ridge would mean a lot not just to me but my whole the whole Viking community
more trails would give riders safer more diverse options and help reduce
crowding and trail conflicts. It would also create more opportunities for
younger riders to get into the sport just like I did. And I don't know it's
had a big impact on my life I would really like to see something happen out
there. And that's all thank you guys. Thank you. Any other commenters? Could we
could we also add that we do have the public comment section earlier in the
agenda. That's when it's most appropriate for you to make your comments. Thank you
very much for being here. Apologize for that. All right. Next on the agenda is the
park in space summary. I invite Mike Vickers with City of Walnut Creek for
the presentation. Good evening commissioners. My name is Mike Vickers,
I'm the assistant public works director for the City of Walnut Creek and tonight
I was planning to share an overview of our parks and the amenities both in our
parks in our open space share a little bit with you about what the public works
work chart looks like in regards to my responsibilities and talk a little bit
about budget and then dive into the details here okay there we go so I just
ran through the agenda as I mentioned our objective for tonight is to share an
overview of the parks and open space projects our division and a general
overview of our budget as it relates to projects, which
includes our MMP, our CIP, and our capital budget process.
And I'll share more details about this in just a minute.
So who are we in regards to my side of the org chart?
We have a total of 43 members of this team.
And it starts there on the left with our building maintenance
team, which is made up of nine individuals responsible
for 69 buildings throughout the city,
including the Lesher Center, which is a facility that we
just recently took on last year, years prior.
The Lesher Center was generally maintained
by the theater techs and the recreation division.
And there was a transfer and responsibilities,
which has been really great, both fantastic
for the facility, but also great for the two departments that
are working much closer together and securing
that the facility is getting the needs and the attention
that it deserves.
The parks, we have two park supervisors, Brad Griffin
and Chuck Montgomery.
They divide the parks equally.
For the most part, Chuck maintains
passive parks, such as Civic Park, for example.
And Brad would maintain Heather Farm,
because it's a program facility.
And then we have Corey, who is our senior ranger,
oversees the open space with a team of about six or seven.
In total, with the parks and open space,
there's about 34 employees.
It's interesting to point out that before the Great
Recession that we had in 08, in the parks and open space
division, there was over 50 employees, which is now down.
It's been almost 20 years now.
it's dropped by about 40%.
And I'm not going to get into this level of not going
to share this with the budget.
But you might ask, well, how can you drop 40%?
And if you take a look at our amenities today
versus where they were 18 to 20 years ago,
they're in much better condition.
And a lot of that is due to this body supporting the funding,
the park and loo funding for maintenance activities that
takes place every two years.
As I go through my updates in the parks,
you'll see projects completed.
We've updated all of the irrigation systems
throughout all of our parks, which is a big time consumer,
as you can imagine, digging up main lines and valves
and laterals.
It's a considerable amount of work.
And so with all those efforts, with the support
of this commission and council, we've
been able to reduce the staff because we've
been improving our amenities.
So our budget overview, and this is obviously not
our operating budget. This is regarding projects. Our MMP, which is a maintenance master plan,
which by the way is not a typical plan that you would see in a lot of other communities.
This is fairly unique to Walnut Creek. Rich Payne, who is now the public works director,
created this program 15, 20 years ago when he was a public works maintenance supervisor
are overseeing the operations and and really what what this has done is been
able given us a tool to capture all of the resources within the city of Walnut
Creek put a date and when those resources were installed and then put a
it's much thought the life expectancy date so you can go anywhere in our
parks and every bench in our parks every drinking fountain bike rack is listed on
on our MMP, that goes the same as in our streets,
all of our street infrastructure,
whether it's our signal infrastructure
or our storm drains,
every piece of infrastructure within the city,
including our facilities is in the MMP.
And we use that MMP for a number of different reasons.
One is it helps us project, forecast
what operational needs we have
and also what capital needs we have.
And so I'll just give an example.
The playground over at Civic Park
that we're getting ready to renovate,
that playground was installed in 97.
It reached its useful life back in 23.
We came to this body,
got the recommendation to upgrade that facility,
went to city council, they provided the funding,
and now we'll go out and replace that amenity.
So we use the maintenance master plan
to budget and forecast future projects.
Those forecast items are moved
from our maintenance master plan into our capital budget,
or sorry, into our CIP, which is a 10 year planning tool.
So once something is identified,
infrastructure is identified that needs to be replaced,
it goes on to our CIP.
That CIP is brought to the commission every other year
at the beginning or the end of the two-year budget cycle
in preparation for the following two-year cycle,
we'll bring to you a list of recommendations
for amenities that need to be repaired or replaced.
We'll evaluate the priority
because obviously we don't have the funding
to fix everything.
We'll share those recommendations with this body,
get your guys support, answer your questions,
and then take this recommendation onto the city council,
The city council will then appropriate the priorities
as they see fit, which then goes into funding
the actual amenity improvements themselves,
which we refer to as the capital budget,
which is a two-year capital budget.
So it starts with the MMP, CIP,
and then a two-year capital from there.
So this is just a quick look at all of the amenities.
I'm gonna get into much more detail here in a minute,
we have parks overview guides in the back of the guide this this is in the
spreadsheet is in the guide stating where each of the park is at in which
amenities exist in each one of the parks so Alma Park so the reason one of the
reasons I'm sharing this presentation with you tonight is my initial thought
and I shared this with some of the commissioners prior was to update our
10-year park plan which was originally put together back in 2016.
It's a 10-year park plan and so it's expired this year and we decided to take
a step back because as I mentioned a few minutes ago we are going to be doing a
general plan update for the 2020 the 2050 general plan and we thought it
would be better to take that time to take a more holistic look at our
parks. And so the Planning Commission, probably around the October meeting, will
be coming to the Commission and start those conversations, as they will all the
other all the commissions throughout the city. And that's generally, they'll share
more information or you'll get more information leading into that. But
generally, we're trying to get from your standpoint, from your viewpoint, what the
parks are going to look like over the next 20-25 years. Which is pretty
challenging right I mean technology changes you know every every five to ten
years new amenities and new sports come up it's it's really hard to it's really
hard to decide so we're looking more at in general but keep in mind as you're
going through this process and when we're not going to discuss it too much
here tonight but but keep in mind the condition of facilities just as I stated
in our MMP. We have aging facilities here in Walnut Creek. Obviously we've got a
huge project tackling some amenities that were built back in late 60s, early
70s. We have a community center and a clay arts facility and assembly hall in
Walnut Creek or sorry in Civic Park that you know 10 years they're about 60 to
65 years old now. And so as we're going through the general plan process we
should also be thinking about how these amenities are being used and they're in
in their life cycle.
So if you, and I've seen that some of you
had the 10-year park plan that I emailed out to all of you,
or actually Ashley did, thank you Ashley,
a few weeks back just to kind of give you an idea
of what was discussed over the past 10 years,
give you a little insight into
what we're talking about tonight,
and if you had an opportunity to go through it,
you'll notice that there's a section
where we focused on what we referred to as feature parks.
And the goal there was to look at it was really based around
the parks in the downtown.
Because as the community was starting to grow
and we were getting much more multifamily housing
condos and apartments built in the downtown,
we wanted to reach out and really put our heads together
to ensure that we are bringing enough amenities
into the major green spaces that we have in the downtown,
which is really Alma Park and Civic Park.
Now there are other parks, Walnut Creek isn't that big.
So I mean, Heather's only about a mile and a half
from Civic, Walden isn't too far from Civic,
but when you think about the downtown parks,
most people actually only think of Civic Park
because they don't really have an idea
where Alma Park is at.
Alma Park's a fairly small park,
but it was one of the feature parks
that we were trying to bring more community awareness to
and maybe some more amenities for different user groups
to Alma Park and it's really challenging.
We came across a number of challenges
when we were working through this process
and identifying feature parks
because Alma Park, for example,
which is pretty well hidden,
it's surrounded on three sides
by high-density housing, and if you were to drive by,
you would really think that it is an HOA property
that is really owned and managed by the condos
and the apartments in that area, and it's not.
It was, the park was, as part of the permitting process,
it was, the city took possession of that park
and opened it in 2003, it's about two and a half acres,
somewhere in that range, and it has some pergolas,
So some shaded seating areas, some grass areas.
And if you'd go there in the morning, it's kind of a dog
park.
People live in the condos, and apartments need an
opportunity to get their dogs out, walk them around, and do
what they need to do.
It's very aesthetically pleasing.
It's really well maintained.
We've had some older oak trees that have come down.
There's an area that we refer to as the bowl, which is
really kind of a, it looks like a bowl, actually.
We had an oak tree that was somewhere in there,
age of 200 years old come down.
And as one of the, when it was identified as a feature park,
one of the commissioners recommended that we go in
and do some high-end landscaping in that area.
In fact, there was a discussion about community gardens
and other things, and when you're gonna put
a community garden in right below 200 people's balcony,
which could drive noise, could drive other challenges,
including rodents and those types of things,
you get some pushback and rightly so.
And so we just went with a passive garden in that area.
There were some other things
that were talked about, improved seating.
We also talked about building a small play ground,
not a structure, but play panels,
in a seating area that would overlook Mount Diablo.
And we never got that far.
We don't have the funding to do those two.
And we also learned that there's a permit
to build another structure, another apartment complex
that would block your views from Mount Diablo.
And you'd probably be looking right into someone's patio.
And so I think once that facility gets built,
maybe we can relook at revamping
and coming up with some different ideas.
We talked about public art.
There's a couple great spots for public art.
The public art team knows about it,
and I think that when those opportunities come up
that they may come back to the commission
and say, hey, we wanna move forward with those ideas.
So Arbolado Park was also identified as a feature park.
We accomplished a lot over the last several years.
With Arbol, you can see that the park opened up
back when the Arbolado neighborhood was built back in 93.
It's 25, 26 acres, about 18 of those acres
are maintained and developed.
The other six acres is an old walnut orchard
that remains undeveloped with just the older trees
and it acts as a really good buffer
between the active park and the homes on the backside.
We looked at developing that six acres
along several years ago.
And as kind of the theme, we got a fair amount of pushback.
These people bought their homes.
They had a buffer.
And now we were considering or having conversations
about doing away with that buffer, which obviously
frustrates property owners.
And so we put that aside.
There was another space down at this northwest corner
the park where there's about an acre, acre and a half that we actually put
funding aside, council approved funding to put a plan together to improve that
section of the park. Arbalado Park, it's kind of tucked away a little bit
but it's a really active park. There's a lot of sports that are going on there,
there's a lot of local use with the playgrounds and what we consider the
a passive area there to be a bull.
You go by there on a weekend, especially during soccer season.
And it's a lot of street parking.
All the parking spots are filled in both parking lots.
It's very active.
And the decision not too long ago was to pull that funding.
And that funding actually went into the synthetic turf project
because we needed some additional funding.
And so that acre and a half will continue
to sit until we bring it back as a high priority
and then work through as I shared the CIP process
and then the capital budget process.
So in the last several years,
we've added shade structures.
We've improved a connection to the open space.
We've just recently resurfaced
the tennis and basketball courts.
As I mentioned prior,
I'm not gonna say this for every one of the parks,
but we completely redid the irrigation system.
And the playground structures are not brand new.
they were put in in 2015, 14 or 15, and are doing well.
So no real need for improving the structures at this time.
Can I interrupt quickly for clarification?
Yes.
So Arbolado is a community park.
Correct.
And Heather Farm is a community park.
Heather Farm is considered a regional.
Yeah, that's correct.
Regional park.
Yeah.
And most of our other parks are something else.
So could you kind of go through the definitions
of the different kinds of parks?
Yeah, there used to be, in fact, some of the old signage
would say neighborhood park.
And so now we have two distinctions.
We have one regional park, and all the other parks
are considered community parks.
So size and amenities aren't part of that definition,
at least how it's being considered now?
That's correct.
OK, and I know, I guess I'm getting into more than just
a quick clarification.
But I think people perceive parks differently.
I mean, we've run into this, right?
People at Red Gear, even people at Arbelado, right?
want to shade because more people will come and it's like but it's a community park and it's meant
to be open to the community not just the neighbors. So is that more of a conflict you see happening or?
It comes up. You know when you talk about developing the six acres of Orchard, that buffer,
you know you hear the comment you hear the comments that hey this is neighborhood park,
this was built here to support this neighborhood. It wouldn't be here unless the neighborhood was
here and because of that conflict the language changed and so they're not
neighborhood parks anymore I mean we're gonna we're gonna talk about the old
Lancaster Park now the Remembrance Park which is a very small piece right
probably twelve fifteen thousand square feet it's community park it's no longer
considered to be a neighborhood park and and you know this is I'm gonna go
through each one of these parks so thank you for for the question if you have
questions let's tackle them now instead of waiting to the very end it'll just
It'll save us time having to go back.
So the boundary of golf course, there's been some requests
from commissioners to get a more of a formal update
on what's happening and what's new at the golf course.
The golf course is considered a park.
So before I go on, that update will hopefully be
at the next June meeting.
Hopefully we'll have someone from the recreation team
give an update on all the great things
that are going on out there.
but as you can see, the building and the golf course
were built in 69.
The city put, I can't remember if it's six or $8 million
into the actual facility back in 2016 or 2017,
where they revamped a lot of the infrastructure,
the plumbing and those types of things.
They also did a lot of improvements at the grill,
HVAC systems and some of the banquet rooms,
those were all in need of improvements from a facility that is quite old.
And then most recently, as all of you know, the recreation team and along with the engineering
team and a golf course designer updated the driving range and installed this top tracer,
which has really, really taken off quite well.
Mike, but there's a differentiation in that it's a self-funding organization for golf,
and the driving range was also self-funded, wasn't it?
Yes.
And this is specifically why we brought you back to the commission, is to remind me of
some of the important details that you're –
Well, just because, I mean, the amount of money spent on the building facility was beyond
the capability of the self-funding nature of golf range maintenance but
that's you know understandable. Actually the facility is what's
considered an enterprise fund and it's fully self-funded and the funding that
was borrowed for the facility upgrades along with the driving range are being
fully supported by the operational revenues that come into the golf course
It was not funded by the general fund.
So thank you for reminding me to bring that up.
Very important point.
So Castle Rock, I'm sure a lot of you know
where Castle Rock is.
It's adjacent to Northgate High School.
We do share some tennis courts.
There's 12 tennis courts at that facility.
Four of them are publicly used after school hours.
So weekends and evenings, obviously during the day,
they're used by the students, fairly regularly used
by community members.
One challenge is there's no restrooms up there
for the public, which makes it a little bit challenging.
However, there are restrooms down by the soccer field.
There's a little bit of a height between the soccer field
and the tennis courts.
If you get a chance to get out there to take a look,
it'd be worth seeing.
This facility was built in 2003.
It's built on Mount Diablo school property,
and the city has a 50-year lease with Mount Diablo school
district to have this facility in that location.
There's a big parking lot there.
It's really a sports park for the most part.
There's two adult-sized soccer fields during soccer season,
and then there's this little league ball fields
that are out there as well during baseball season.
Mike, I have a question.
Yes.
What's the public accessibility to the tennis courts?
So the public has access to four of the tennis courts.
I believe it's the four lower courts after school hours
and on weekends, after school hours.
Thanks.
Yeah, and those courts were recently resurfaced
by the school district, and the city
did participate in the funding to resurface those courts.
have another question it is more of a general question but this is what
triggered it does the city have agreements with Mount Diablo for other
facilities like pools or anything like throughout the district we do not you
don't okay no I'm gonna get into Northgate Park here in a minute and
there is a little bit of mixed use there I can share with you but no not with
pools. So Civic, as I mentioned, was one of the feature parks. In fact,
Commissioner Worthy, Tom Worthy, who served on this body for at least two
terms, this was his park and there were some interesting ideas. He was really
trying to activate the east side of the park and had an idea of moving the
playground over to the east side to provide more space on the west side. Also
so we'll get more users over on the east side.
That actually led into some funding
that was set aside to do a park master plan at Civic Park.
And then we got into a bigger discussion
about our facilities and our facility needs with Council.
And so that funding, there was $350,000 set aside
to do a master plan for Civic Park.
That funding eventually went into your park, your future,
which ultimately led to the construction
and new development of the pool and rec center.
And so the master plan still sits,
the master plan concept and idea for Civic Park
still sits in the CIP unfunded.
But we have made a number of improvements as you can see.
We added some where Mr. Worthy was suggesting
that playground goes,
we added some exercise equipment there.
I wouldn't say it's overused.
it gets, you see a lot of the same people that are using it,
but it certainly gets used.
It's just, you'd like to see a little bit more participation.
Parks, you know, right around 17 acres.
It's surrounded by the Clay Arts Building.
I don't know, most of you probably are aware
of the Clay Arts Building, where the restrooms are.
That building, I think, was installed in the 40s.
very old building, well-built building,
very active building, the clay arts that are in that facility
I think are seven day a week classes.
And very, very active.
What else we got there?
So many of you know in 2010, we opened up the library.
There used to be tennis courts where the library is,
and the smaller library, obviously that all
came together in 2010.
We're reconstructing the playground,
And the playground, this should go out in social media
here, hopefully this week, that by the end of this month,
we'll be under construction at the playground.
I talked to the playground construction company.
They said it's probably going to be about five to six weeks
for construction.
So fingers crossed we'll be done before the end of May.
So Diablo Shadows, not too far from the golf course.
In fact, there's a trail that runs along the back of Diablo
Shadows that will run you right up to the Ignacio Canal Trail
right there by hole number 14.
Small park, probably the definition of a neighborhood park
because it is so small, but it is a community park.
Two and a half acres, it gets a little bit of use for soccer.
We were trying to get, as the Walnut Creek Soccer Club
continues to grow with the younger guys and gals,
we were trying to get them to use some of this space
out there, which they did this last year.
Because they're competing for space,
the program continues to grow.
I think it's just short of 3,000 individuals,
although, sorry, athletes.
I know that the synthetic turf fields
will greatly help that need because it's all weather.
They can use it more regularly, get more bodies out there.
So I'm not sure they'll continue to use Diablo Shadows,
but it's great to see the park active.
It really is, for the most part, used
by the neighbors, get the odd birthday party out there,
that shade structure that we put in.
There's a number of barbecues and other seating areas
out there.
Before we leave Diablo Shadows, two things.
One, I've also seen flag football practicing out there.
Girls flag football.
Interesting, yeah.
And then also, there's the connector to the trail,
but then there's also the, I guess it's a power corridor
that runs down all the way to Oak Grove?
Yes.
OK.
And there's a bridge.
Yes.
When you were giving me my tour four years ago,
you talked about that bridge.
But the bridge is the same.
So is there a problem with that bridge, structural problem?
Or I mean, I walk on it all the time.
It's just fine to me.
There's no structural issues with the bridge at all.
The bridge is safe and sound.
It's in our CIP.
The long-term goal is to get rid of the stairs
so that you can get easier to get the little guys and girls
can get their bikes up or strollers,
those types of things.
And so it's more of an accessibility goal of ours.
And I think it's still in the CIP, to be honest with you,
just to make the bridge accessible
is really what it comes down to.
OK.
And then secondly, on that corridor
that's under the power lines from the park to Oak Grove,
that is not the city's property, correct?
It is the city's apartment.
Oh, is it the city?
Yes.
OK.
Because the bike, young kids on bikes
have built themselves a nice trail with jumps
and stuff like that along there.
So I didn't know if it was the city's responsibility
or if it was the utility's responsibility.
Yeah, the utility is a number of years ago,
PG&E came in and removed a bunch of oaks.
I don't know if you probably see some of the stumps out there.
I'm sure the kids are using those jumps.
But they came in and removed a number of oaks
that were growing up into the wires.
But that is city responsibility.
If you're out there, as you are, you'll
see that the gravel roads go on either side.
Those are the service roads for flood control.
Those are obviously their responsibility.
With Pine Creek, that waterway that runs through there,
that portion is fully flood control's responsibility.
there's a Pine Creek portion that the city has
further upstream than that,
but that's all flood control.
So the paved trail areas are ours.
So El de Visidero right next to Brie and Christian,
soccer field there for the most part.
We've added a couple amenities with some picnic tables
and improved drinking fountain.
You can see kind of the balance beam logs that we added
and we added some exercise equipment
knowing that parents are out there maybe
with their little ones, and the little ones
are watching the older ones play soccer and get bored
so they can go climb around on the logs and rocks,
and maybe the adults or teenagers
can use the exercise equipment.
So it's worked out well.
The exercise equipment was a big trend 10, 12 years ago,
which we did it here, and we did it at Civic Park.
And we've seen, like I said, moderate use
out of those facilities.
So Heather Farm, I'm not going to spend a ton of time
on Heather Farm.
We all know what amenities this has from an equestrian center
over to now pickleball courts.
It's got everything that you can think of.
It's a large park.
Here's the master plan.
This is one of the few master plans that we have city-wide.
There's a couple things to point out here.
Look at that, how fancy.
The All Billys Playground, obviously not new,
is built and opened up in 2014.
The great thing about the All Billys Playground,
well, good and bad.
If you've been out there and you look at the resilient surface,
the rubber, it's not looking like Walnut Creek Standard.
It's really pulled apart.
But we just got funding.
Council just appropriated or actually we received funding from our Recycle Smart
Fund and so we have the money now to replace that resilient surface believe
it or not to replace that resilient surface is about a million dollars
things are getting expensive there's no doubt so that's a project that our
engineering team will help out hopefully this fall if not sometime next spring
the Centennial Grove that that went in place in 2014 when the city hit its 100
year mark. The greenhouses there at the gardens was donor funding that they
received and the city supported that with a community garden that the
gardens maintained for us. The passive picnic area and it feels like
this might keep going out maybe it's me. For those of you who aren't aware that's
actually the equestrian center. The 2003 master plan that was adopted shows the
equestrian center going away and more recreation space being put in that
location. There's a little sports court it shows in there and then that brown
circle there is is a facility a restroom or something along those lines. And then
bocce courts were originally proposed there at what we have as our maintenance
yard. Those ideas kind of went by the wayside when we lost a portion of our
corporation yard off of Lawrence Way when the new hotel went in there. And
then you can see that this how old this plan is where it showed two basketball
courts and is now a dog park. The goal obviously when they were doing the
master plan was to try and get some additional court surfacing out there but
the dog park want it over and the dogs are out there to stay. So and then you
know we completed this is we see the pool rec center project we completed
phase one last summer we're in the middle of phase two a lot of exciting
things out there I can't wait to get see your grandson out there seeing all the
big trucks and equipment run around we're doing the excavation the mass
excavation right now right after that within the next few weeks we will be
be putting in the underground utilities, and then start working on the foundation and then
start construction, you know, by summertime.
And then comes phase three, and I mentioned this briefly earlier.
Phase three, it's my understanding the recreation team is going to be leading the reimagining
of the Clark Swim Center, which is about 3.4 acres.
And if you've been out at Heather Farm and you've seen that fence, the construction fence
that's up there. It's really taken a big swath out of the meadow. It doesn't mean
we've gotten less people. They're just working in, they're just playing in
smaller areas now. So it'll be interesting to see what comes out of that. We lost
about two and a half, 2.8 acres, and then we're going to gain about 3.4 acres with
with the new pool, or sorry, with the Clark Swim Center. And there'll be the
more to come on that planning process. But Council's goal is to start that
planning process the second half of this year or spring of next year based on depending on priorities and
Mike the commission will have a role in that
Correct. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah, I hope so. Yes, there's a lot of interest in that
Yeah, and also yeah, I boy I tell you that the park is always crowded
Maybe it looks a little more crowded because there is less space but there's so many people out there a lot, which is great
I mean, it's wonderful to see so many people out there enjoying the park even with the fences up and stuff
the day after in terms of maintenance the day after 4th of July is
Probably our most challenging
Maintenance day and then the day after Easter is our second most challenging. Yeah, there's a lot of candies and stuff all over the place
So it's you know, everybody had a good time
Especially when the calls come in on the Monday mornings. Why aren't you guys out here type of thing?
So the guys do a great job.
There's about, I say, four and a half
because there's some other responsibilities
to oversee 102 acres with over 1.5 million visitors.
Four and a half people is pretty impressive.
So Larky, where the model railroad station is,
seen some upgrades in the pool back in 2016.
The pool, for those of you who remember,
used to be an L-shape that was squared off.
I believe it might have been deepened.
I can't remember.
I'm not positive about that.
And then there was a splash pad that was installed there.
And I always share these numbers that Karen Heaston shared
with me back in 17, that when the, in 16,
prior to the pool being opened, or the new pool being open,
they were getting about 3,500 visits per year.
And with the additional size of the pool and the splash pad,
The following year, they got over 35,000,
which is gonna be interesting,
when we open up a new pool and rec center
with a lazy river and a big splash pad.
That 1.5 number might go to 1.8, we'll see at Heather Farm.
So we'll see what happens there.
But Larky's a great park.
It gets a lot of visitors, I don't know the numbers,
but it's very active.
We increase the number of volleyball courts,
sand volleyball courts over there not too long ago,
just before COVID, it's got our only horseshoe pits.
It's really active tennis center.
There's been, you know, as pickleball continues to grow,
there's been some people pushing to add pickleball
to make some of those courts pickleball friendly
or multi-use, that hasn't taken hold
because it is so close to neighborhoods.
The, like I said, the basketball court is out there.
The swimming pool isn't open year round,
although it's becoming more frequent in the winter
as we have challenges with the Heather Farm pump system
and heating system for those ponds.
So we want to make sure that we got providing opportunities
for our swimming community to keep going wherever we can.
It's challenging with that old pool,
but meaning the Clark pool, but we do our best.
And then we resurfaced the tennis court and basketball court, I think in 21 with a state grant that we received.
LaRue's interesting piece of property that was deeded to the city back in 75 by Mrs. LaRue.
And the agreement was that Mrs. LaRue would remain on the property until she passed.
She passed, unfortunately in 2003, the city went in and worked over a four or five year
period to get it public ready and open the park up in 08.
It's a 10 acre park.
If you haven't had an opportunity to get out there, the views of Mount Diablo are just
terrific.
Certainly right now, with everything being as green as it is, in fact, you don't see
it up there as much as we used to, but people would be up there with easels.
You'd see four or five people up there almost every day with easels painting Mount Diablo
So there used to be a home up there, as shared.
There was a swimming pool.
We eventually took the home out, filled in the swimming pool.
And this water tower, we moved it over slightly,
and we left that in there more as a memorial
for the LaRue family.
There's some historical signage that a Boy Scout did.
There's an old wall and a hauler that
was up there that was dated back to like 1920.
and a Boy Scout troop came out and they overhauled it
and repaired it and got it functioning
and basically restored it and it's up there now
by the water tower.
This is, this property is completely fenced in.
If you're out there at eight o'clock in the morning,
it's a lot of dogs
and certainly for the most part used by the neighbors.
There was an exercise that we went through
A number of years ago, we were relooking to develop this park
more than it is.
We actually worked with an architect.
We had a plan to build a playground up there.
We talked about building large pergolas or shade structures,
almost like farm, not farm, but barn-like shade structures
up there for community outings.
There were some people in the neighborhood
that really thought that this was an ideal wedding spot,
and so they were trying to drive more interest in that area.
And what we did end up doing was we built all-weather trails.
It used to only have dirt trails,
and so we put DG trails so that you can still
get out there in the winter without getting mud
all over your shoes.
We planted, I don't know, 60 to 80 trees out there, oak trees
and fruit trees and then added some seeding.
And there hasn't really, so we don't have any funding.
So it was a kind of a phased approach.
We completed phase one, phase two,
was to go build the playground and those types of things.
And we haven't had much push back from the community.
In fact, the neighbors would prefer
that it's not activated anymore.
Parking is almost non-existent.
Street parking is very minimal.
So it would certainly drive more users
with maybe not all the resources you need
in order to enjoy your experience up there.
And restrooms, no restrooms up there either.
And restrooms based on the conventions
and the different shows that I go to
are somewhere in the range of 500 to $700,000
to build restrooms without the service hookups.
So restrooms, you only have so much funding.
And that's, you know, when we're working through the CIP,
that's what we're trying to prioritize,
where we'll find that balance.
Mike, can I ask a question while the room?
Yeah.
I haven't met up there in six months or so,
but the east entrance is fairly steep.
I don't know if maintenance has been able to go
and like grade it, or if they could.
Shady Glen, right?
Is it Shady Glen Drive?
Yeah, it's Shady Glen.
That entrance on that side is very steep.
So I don't know if maintenance can grade it or whatever,
or if it's intentionally steep.
Yeah, definitely look into it.
Thank you for that feedback.
So Liberty Bell, most of you probably
didn't know Liberty Bell, which is right downtown
at Broadway and Mount Diablo, is considered a park.
It's all hardscape.
It's got the decorative fountain there,
and it's kind of a pass through for shoppers
and others that are just visiting the downtown.
We do, I've worked closely with the Walnut Creek downtown
business district, and we are looking to improve some seating
to try and get, provide another spot for somebody
to sit down and have a sandwich,
or enjoy the company they're with.
And there's some drinking fountain out there.
We're gonna convert the drinking fountain to a dog,
or a pet-friendly drinking fountain.
We had a fair amount of feedback about that
when people are walking around in the hot downtown,
and then there's an aged kiosk
that we're gonna be replacing in those types of things.
So not a lot going on down there.
We're trying to make it a little bit more inviting,
add some shade, those types of things.
Northgate, I touched on this earlier,
Northgate is right adjacent to the parking lot
for Northgate High School.
The Northgate High School volleyball team
uses the new sand volleyball courts that are there.
They also use it for PE.
They have the removable disc golf nets
that they'll take out there.
I think they use it for shot put and some other things out
there.
But this park was renovated, I think, in 15 or 16.
I can't remember.
Obviously, you can see here, it was created back in 79.
And when it was created, it had a roller skate
rink within the trail system, which was really interesting.
And when I first got to this city,
I was like, what's going on here?
What were they thinking when they did this?
And then I learned it was for roller skating.
So good old days.
So there is no parking unless you're
parking in the school parking lot.
It's mostly street parking.
It's joined to Castle Rock when we renovated the park,
The area next to the sand volleyball,
we made flat enough for two youth.
By youth, I mean four or five-year-old soccer fields.
And there are restrooms at Castle Rock Park.
So it's a bit of a hike.
You've got to basically go the distance of an adult-sized soccer
field to get from one spot to the other.
But we improved the seating.
The landscaping was a really great improvement.
This park was really, really tired
and used to get a lot of graffiti, a lot of litter
and those types of things.
Because it's kind of a pass-through for the students
at Northgate.
And once we improved it, the kids,
we didn't get any more graffiti.
We didn't get any more litter.
It was almost like, hey, they care about it,
so now we do as well.
So it was a really great project.
Old Oak Park is, this could be a trivia question, actually.
where is Old Oak Park?
So if you're, let me see,
I'm gonna get my directions wrong.
But if you're at the intersection of Tice and Rossmore,
the way that I'm facing, if you were gonna turn west,
that would take you into Rossmore.
If you turned left, which would be almost like
you were gonna go to the Safeway,
if you went straight up the hill,
it dead ends at a park and it's called Old Oak Park.
The only thing there is a sign and a two rail fence
preventing anybody from driving into the park. This park was purchased along with a lot of the
open space, and I'll share some of this with you in a few minutes, through the R8 bond that was
passed by the community back in 94, or sorry 74. This park was one of the parks that were purchased
just with that $6.8 million bond.
But back in 2010, just before I got here to the city,
my old boss Dan Cather was getting some push
from the community to build a disc golf course.
And with this park being 16 acres, completely undeveloped,
there's not even any walking trails up there,
the goal was, hey, how do we find,
how do we activate this space just through a passive use?
And, and it didn't go over as well as he thought.
They went out and designed the 18 holes.
They had it a community, a pros community meeting.
And the council chambers were packed full of neighbors.
And they left there knowing
that they're not gonna build a disc golf course.
So it was, it was a challenge.
And it's, it's, you know, I've said this a number of times
about the neighbors.
And part of it is, and I know I've learned about,
I've done a better job,
or I think I'm doing a better job at this,
is making sure that you're getting out in front of this
and not just bringing a plan to a neighborhood
almost ready to go, almost shovel ready.
It's about getting them more involved earlier on.
We've done that with a number of projects,
you know, whether it was San,
we had San Volley ball subcommittees
where we took commissioners along with
active community members, put together subcommittees
and we'd go out and evaluate these different spaces.
We were having these study sessions out in the field.
We did it with Bocce.
We ultimately did it with disc golf
based on the experience that we learned from Old Oak Park.
We put together a committee and found that
the back of Walden Park could be better activated.
And so we put nine holes in the back of Walden Park,
and I'll share that with you here in a minute.
So, it's about getting the neighbors more involved
and getting them more invested
and making sure that they have a voice to share
is generally what I've learned
over the last number of years.
Hey Mike, could this become an open space
instead of a developed park?
Yeah, so a lot of people consider it a land bank,
consider it open space.
And the general plan says it's a park, but either way,
there was funding that was approved $25,000
to build some trails back in 17 or 18.
The work was never completed.
That money sat there long enough
that when we needed it for the synthetic turf fields,
that money was moved over and supported the synthetic turf
field.
So yeah, it basically is open space now.
I mean, if you go up there, really the only thing,
the only maintenance that it gets is we go out there once
in a while and pick up litter.
And then we have to abate it.
We disc that field out there.
So it's off the beaten path, right?
It's almost outside of the Cindy limits for the most part.
so it doesn't get that much attention.
Does it have trails or no trails?
There's no trails there.
OK, because the slide said it has walking trails.
That's why.
I'm sorry.
So see the paved trail there on the one picture?
Yeah.
On the bottom picture, there is a walking trail
that basically takes you from the end of that street
up into a neighborhood.
But it's not a dirt.
It's not actually, well, I guess it's probably part of the park,
but it's not like a two mile unpaved trail
that you like an open space trail.
Yeah, it's just that neighborhood access.
So Remembrance Park, like this used to be Lancaster Park,
not that long ago.
I think the park name changed maybe in 21 or 22,
somewhere in that range.
It was previously named Lancaster Park.
Like almost all of our parks are named after the road
that they're on.
This fell right in line with that.
There was a push from the community to come together
and provide a space to recognize individuals
for a number of reasons.
This space was chosen.
It was really just a, it was really a great project.
The community came out, they donated money,
they put pavers out there, they donated the funding
for the benches, for the table, the umbrellas.
We had to redo some of the pathway
to make it a little bit easier to walk around.
And it was really a great, great event.
And what's interesting about the Prose Commission
is nine times out of 10, they're making a recommendation
either to staff or to counsel on where to take a certain item.
And in this case, the Prose Commission
was held responsible for the name change.
This came solely from the Prose Commission,
didn't have to go to counsel.
And so when the community was here pushing for this,
the pros commission got to make the final determination
on the name change, which was really great.
In fact, there's a couple other amenities in the open space
that we're considering some name changes for.
And so we may be bringing that to you in the June meeting
or later this year to weigh in and get your opinion on those.
So very small park.
I mean, it says an acre.
This is definitely not an acre.
less than an acre but it's worth it's worth going by and seeing a lot of the
vegetation in the in the plants and flowers you see on the on the bench
that's just one bench there's three benches out there this this material is
maintained by the community members and it's it's a good spot hey Mike when when
that came before us I remember discussing this a little bit and the
suggestion was made that there be an explanation of the significance of the
park and did they put it up any information like a plaque or a kiosk or
we have not anything like that no we have not I mean it's something that will
make note of it might have just been something that fell off our priority
list but there isn't any information out there stating why the name change yeah
there might be online but there's not at the park but there's also I mean isn't
this maybe I'm remembering misremembering but isn't this the one where
This is kind of dealing with with literally with it is like a memorial park. I mean there were certain
Young people maybe that had suffered with mental illness and and had passed away
And this park is is in part in remembrance of them. Yeah in my I'm not mist. Yeah, okay
and it seemed to me at the time that
Since that's the case. It's not about the name change per se. It's about what is the significance of this park, correct?
Okay, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely worth revisiting. Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's there
People that are recognized there. I mean one of the biggest
pushes for this was teachers from Las Lomas had reached out to us and and we're in full support of
Kind of changing the theme and also changing the name
Something to represent the students that had gone through their school
So red gear
Nothing new at red gear
That was a mild attempt at a joke, but pickleball is
Is going on it's not new. I mean pickleball has been around for a little while now in fact the
The original pickleball courts when they were doing
Joint use between tennis and pickleball with I think it was that lines were painted the temporary lines were put in back in 2012
And then permanently put in in 2018
I believe I could have those dates a little bit off and then the this board as we all know has just grown drastically from there
They get a ton of use. They've had some change of hours over there, which a little bit of change of parking to
to respect some of the neighbors parking spots or street parking spots over there and
I know that noise is continued challenge
But for the most part the court is really well maintained they pick up after themselves
they're continuing to honor the
the unsanctioned parking agreement
And it's it's super active. It's it's really it's probably
The most active space that we have in all of Walnut Creek in the morning
That I can think of maybe outside of the pools
But it is a lot of fun a lot of laughing and people connecting over there, so it's it's been interesting to watch
Red gear you know before the pickleball there those were two tennis courts that used to have five now
It has three tennis courts eight pickleball courts. It's got a youth soccer field and softball field
We recently resurfaced the three tennis courts and repainted it. We didn't resurface, but we repainted the basketball court
It's you know get there in the morning if there's a lot of dogs running around and
People just getting out and exercise and it's got really great connector trails goes from
Sugarloaf, there's a paved trail from Sugarloaf to red gear and then it eventually takes you over to
Shell Ridge. So good hiking trails, very accessible,
well-maintained park.
We just put in a new playground. We replaced the two to five structure in
21 or 22, added some resilient surface, added some shade structures over there. It's
It's really been a great project for the youth, for the two to five, and I've got to share
a funny story with you.
If you go out there, there's an instrument that you turn and it plays children's music.
And we got a call one day from a neighbor and said, hey, you know, my son or daughter
or was spinning this unit, and the music
wasn't very appropriate.
And we were like, OK.
We get calls sometimes.
And so we got another call.
And we were like, OK, so we better go out there.
And somebody had been able to open it and put their own chip
in there of rap music and took out the kid's music.
It was super creative, but it wasn't that inappropriate.
It just wasn't for that age group.
So it was pretty creative.
Mike, before you move off over, I did hear recently
that Martinez has closed their pickleball courts, which
were a significant draw.
And we may feel some pressure for more pickleball
from those people that were playing there previously,
looking for a new place to play.
So it might be worth keeping an eye on.
It's a good point.
It's a good point.
We opened up, as you know, you've been on the commission
when we opened up the two new permanent courts at Heather
Farm.
And then we have three other courts
that double on the practice court there.
So basically about five courts at Heather Farm.
So we're up to, what's that, 13 courts citywide.
The challenge with the courts at Rudd Gear is,
I'm sure there's gonna be more demand.
I don't know if there's more space,
or not, the space obviously isn't gonna grow,
but I mean timing for more people to play
because it is so active over there.
It'd be interesting.
And the pickleball courts in Heather Farm
continue to get more and more active too.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
How does the pickleball courts' reservation system work?
Is it the same as the tennis courts?
Heather farm at rut gear at rut gear it's just drop-in play
I was just they they have the they have a I think it's a walnut Creek or
Diablo pickleball club something along those lines. That's pretty well structured. And so they they structure it themselves that there's no fee to play
At rut gear there is a fee to play at
Heather farm and that's why it's more structured at her farm. Yeah. Yeah, so Sammy gal I
I was sharing this with the with the chair and vice chair last week
Semi gals a challenge
It's it is a dog park
From basically sunrise to nine nine thirty ten ten thirty eleven somewhere in there
It's really nine nine thirty, but it drags on because the park is so underutilized
You know the the we get a lot of run-off from the hills around and so the grass can stay moist
to which gives an opportunity for dogs to dig.
And they do, I don't want to say damage,
but they're a maintenance challenge.
The park is really activated by the neighborhood
in terms of the dog use out there.
I'm not proposing that we take away the dog use at all.
But it would really be, there's a lot of opportunity
to improve this park.
It is definitely not up to Walnut Creek Standard.
We've had some conversations and some plans
to improve this park in the past.
We've had community conversations
which didn't go very far.
And so the park has kind of sat in the condition it is now.
I mean, we resurfaced the tennis courts several years back.
They're used, it's a really great spot, pickup spot.
The challenge at San Miguel Park
there's no restroom facilities. It's great for trail access. It's easy to get
on the Ignacio Canal Trail and go for a hike. Playground is utilized moderately.
The basketball court is an individual basket, so it's a half a court and the
concrete could be improved. It's definitely a park. I think that we should
explore other opportunities moving forward. It kind of reminds me of North
Gate before we renovated North Gate. It could definitely be improved, yeah.
Could you go back for a second? Yep. So I noticed it's under opportunities that list
community gardens and in the 10-year plan there's a section at the back that
talks about additional work that they looked at and one of the things that
they looked at, for example, was Creek Restoration, a parkour's bocce, but they
also had community gardens and apparently in 2014 the Council City
Council asked pros to look into that and find out what the opportunities were so
I've never seen that report or anything kind of didn't really know they'd looked
at it before but is there a report from that effort is that before your time or
no no there's a there is a report that I can share it was one of these
subcommittees that we put together and and it was back when mr. Simmons was
still Bob Simmons I think might have actually been mayor that year he you
know Bob's really driven by the environment getting people outside
looking for opportunities and it was one of the big pushes was to put a
community or committee together we identified three locations and this is one
of them this is one of them Heather farm was number one at the gardens and so we
move forward with that one. This was number two and number three was at Arvelado.
And so we took the community garden idea to the to the HOA there at the time.
You know mind you this is ten plus years ago and it didn't, it wasn't received well.
Yeah. Sorry. Shelly's Museum. It's you know where there are the Walnut Creek
Creek Historical Society is based out of.
It's a great opportunity for youth learning.
They have a lot of kids programs
that run out of that facility.
They hold a lot of events, mostly weddings
and community events.
City works closely with the historical society
in regards to the maintenance of the facility.
Tice, as all of you know, we just opened up the light
or just turned the lights on there.
Six six or eight months ago got a playground out there. There used to be the Jewish community center out there that was sold to a developer
so that we expanded the parking lot and the Jewish community center still owns the
Space where the gym sits don't think they own the gym
But I think they own this space and we have a 50-year lease
I think they own the land and we have a 50-year lease on that land
there's restrooms out there and
know the recreation team is looking to install some picnic shade structures
out there. Valley Verde is a very less than an acre. It's kind of a pass-through
park. It's right next to Valley Verde school. There's not a lot, a lot going on
out there. It's a pretty small space. Walden is the disc golf course that I
shared with you that went in back in 2012 or 13 or something along those
lines. And the experience with the disc golfers has been fantastic. There was a
lot of comments initially when the disc golf course was going to go in that
everybody's going to be doing things they're not supposed to including
drinking and smoking. There's gonna be litter everywhere and the place is
spotless. The disc golfers really respect the space, respect the staff, and do an
excellent job of cleaning up at themselves. In addition, all through
Volunteer work they poured the pads which you know the teas
They installed the city purchased the baskets, but they installed them. They did this all the signage they installed the signage
They really did a great job was really good partnership
With them as you know we looked at funding some improvements to the to the playground
Hopefully we can talk about that during the next budget cycle
I've heard that that
The disc golf is a regional draw. It's very highly thought of it is
Absolutely. Yeah, they've a
There's a Mount Diablo disc golf course or diff disc golf club that is run out of Walden. Yeah, it's got four or five hundred members
Yeah
So we have a couple options. I've been up here talking for a long time
I'm gonna get into the open space. I
Can zip through the open space?
and keep going or I can bring this back at a future meeting.
I'm probably about 15 minutes more or so.
What does the commission want to do?
I can bring this back and we can have more discussion.
There's a lot of things going on in the open space.
We've got a lot of feedback and there's a lot of history here
that should probably be shared in a little bit more
than 15 minutes and I can continue.
If it takes longer, I can continue that as well.
I'm just trying to feel the temperature from the commission.
If you think you have more to say that you're not going to say right now, then I'd say we should wait.
But if you want to say it all, I mean, if it's all ready to go now, I think this is worth a big discussion, because we have so many issues.
And we have had many public comments tonight as well about open space issues and all that kind of thing.
So it depends on what the outcome.
I mean, I know this is only an update on sort of what's going on and where things stand.
So I don't know, I would be OK with us punting on this
as long as we can do it at our next meeting?
Or is that agenda or info?
We'd bring it back in the June meeting.
It's definitely worth more than a 15-minute update,
because the intention of all this is to share history.
We have some newer commissioners, and we
want to share history of the amenities and some
of the challenges that we've seen,
some of the lessons that we've learned.
And there's a lot to unpack here in the open space.
Agree with Commissioner Garland that we probably would benefit from having its own space
Yeah, I agree and also Mike I have a question about the CIP process is open space separate from the parks or it's all one
pot of
Resources that we're it's a good question, right? So in terms of funding. Yeah, so so it's parks and open space
Okay. Yeah, and in terms of funding there's a number of different funding sources. There's the general fund
Which funds most of our operations. There's grant funding
There's Park and Lou funding
There's some recycle smart funding that we get for items that are made out of recycled materials
But the majority of the money the capital money that goes into our parks and home space comes from Park and Lou
And that is fed out, you know based through this CIP obviously and then we come to this Commission
Which we will be coming here in February of next year with a whole list of projects
Which will talk about re-prioritizing and get the Commission's feedbacks on what they think are the most important
Are the highest priorities moving forward and then we'll take yeah
So it is it's Park and Lou money and that Park and Lou just I believe you all know is funding that comes from developers
So the Brio for example that is out here on Civic and YVR
You have an option to build so much green space
Based on the number of occupants or you can forego building the green space and pay and pay an additional tax
So to speak which is referred to as Park and Lou and that money has to go back in and can only be spent in
Our parks and open space can't be spent on our streets or roads or any of those types of things. All right. Thanks
Great, so if there's no more questions, I will close this presentation and then bring the open space portion of it back in June
I asked one question just about Tice Valley
What's the current status of the consideration of pickleball courts there so there was
There was talk a
a couple years ago. It's been on and off over the last few years about looking for other options
to potentially move pickleball out of red gear and find a space over here in Tice,
which doesn't have near the residence around the facility that we have at Red Gear.
There was some talk about putting in the back of the park. There's been some talk about putting in
in the parking lot and I don't know much more than that, I haven't I haven't
received an update. I know that we're still have some challenges and what's
going on at Rudd gear and I think that's where it sits right now. I don't know of
any new conversation about activating this idea. Thank you. Any other comments
from the commissioners? All right does anyone in the public email audience
wanted to make a comment. All right. No comment? Oh, all right, Barbara. Please come forward
to the podium.
A comment about Boundary Oaks, you know, it's a, all right, I think you said it was self-funded.
Isn't there a 10-year loan from the general fund
to pay for the driving range that was done?
Does anyone know that?
That's why I just thought it's self-funded,
but whatever the driving range costs,
$6 million or $4 million or something like that,
between $4 and $6 million.
The golf course didn't just, you know, pay for it.
had to borrow money from the general plan or from that general fund sorry
does anybody know about that that's why I just when I hear the self-sustaining it
kind of is but it's kind of not because you give them a low interest loan so
yeah so that that that information is accurate the general fund supported the
and the Enterprise Fund repays the the loan along with interest. Okay so it is
and it's a low low low rate loan correct? I don't know the rate. Yeah I think it
was that's the way it was presented. Another thing somebody mentioned
something about the Diablo Shadows Park. I didn't realize there's so many parks
great. But there's bike jumps that are built by it. Is that something the
maintenance staff would take care of? Yes. Okay. Because there's also jumps in what
about on the canal trail, Contra Costa, or the Ignacio Canal Trail. There's bike
jumps there also. Yeah, those should be addressed during maintenance needs, yes.
Okay, so that I'll just mention it again then okay
That was the big thing I wanted to mention and I had a lot of comments
Or a lot of interest in the open space, but it sounds like we're gonna put that off till June or something. Okay. Thank you
Thanks Barbara
Please come forward. Oh
sure
My name is Jim Harrison. I'm with the model railroad Club in Larky Park been there almost 50 years
And I'm still the baby of the bunch. Anyway, the parking lot lights
The gardeners shack does not put on out enough light
For our patrons. What's what's they get?
What 20 feet 30 feet past it's pitch dark. You can't see your hand front of your face
because the parking lot light
Number one the first one up by the garden shack doesn't it works and then it don't it works and it don't
The other one that was down by the pool
Used to face the parking lot
It was turned around
Now I'm almost 77 as you can see I have issues walking
We have guests in there that are
80s 90s
from here to older than me and
I don't want to see somebody fall.
I know I have a hell of a time getting up when I fall.
And I've said other things about this, and they've said, yeah, we'll fix it, we'll look
into it.
You go up there right now, you can't see it in front of your face after you get about
10 feet down.
Yes, my building needs to get new lights in it.
Yes, I'll put those in next week or so.
But I don't want to see somebody, you'll take a face plant.
I'm going to have to go out and pick them up.
But I can't do that anymore either.
But anyway, just a little quick thing.
You know, might look into it, see?
But there is no light in that park at all.
And once the swimming pool closes,
you stand here like this and you can't see anything.
That's all.
Can I respond to that?
Yes.
So, you're right.
In fact, I was at the meeting and I stated
that we would make it a priority
and we haven't gotten to it yet.
It's probably been six weeks or so,
or maybe eight weeks.
The light on the maintenance shack is motion detected.
Yes.
It's not on all the time?
No, no, it is on all the time.
Okay, then I'm misunderstood.
But I totally agree with you.
Lighting needs to be improved over there
and we will move on.
Yeah, I mean, I just don't want to see somebody
taking those plants.
I totally understand.
I appreciate it.
And originally, the lights were facing out on the parking lot.
And when the pool was rebuilt, the parking lot light
was turning from the parking lot was turning around like this.
And I was told that the other one, somebody
hit it with a backhoe.
Well, I can run a backhoe.
OK, I'm sorry it was hit, but put the wires back together.
And the middle light does have a timer on it.
It's got a blue or orange.
I don't know what color it is.
Timer on it.
You know, no night and day timer.
It's not working.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Perhaps, Mike, can we make this as a staff update
item for the next pros meeting?
OK, thank you.
All right, so the next item is the staff announcements
and updates on projects.
Do we have any front staff?
I'm the only staff remaining.
So I have two quick updates.
Community service day is on April 18.
If you're interested, you can go on the city's website
and sign up for a project.
We always need volunteers.
And then I just got an email, which maybe went out
community-wide that the art and wine festival is I believe going to be held
at Civic Park again this June on the 6th and 7th and I could have those dates
wrong so you're gonna have to double-check but it's art and wine in
June at Civic Park. That's it. Thank you. Alright commissioners do we have any
any announcements or reports on the activities? I had a question I was gonna
ask was that would it be possible to do to have the Commission do field visits
or anything like that to any of the parks?
I think it would be a great idea.
We used to do more in the field sessions.
And so what I'll do is I'll pull the commission.
I'll come up some dates and times,
and then I'll pull the commission
and see what feedback we receive.
As we did, the three of us chatted about last week,
There could be a number of opportunities to go out
and actually put our eyes on some of these areas
and have a discussion while we're out there,
instead of me just showing some videos.
So I think it might be helpful, yeah.
Any additional updates or comments from the audience?
All right, the meeting is adjourned.
Thank you.